A wide range of business, scientific, law enforcement, manufacturing, and production applications require the ability to measure and collect data and imagery in remote locations. This data supports specific operational requirements such as site security and surveillance, opening gates, measuring water or electricity levels of temperatures, as well as management reporting functions (trend information).
Remote sensing has the potential to be used in an even wider range of such applications as the value of information becomes more valuable to many industries and business areas. A limiting factor in unlocking this potential is the cost and complexity of the systems and processes required to implement remote sensing capabilities and applications. Remote sensing applications can be in fixed positions or mobile.
Remote sensing applications are diverse and extensive. Some of the applications include: water treatment, electrical power distribution and generation, oil and gas drilling and production, water management, motor racing, transportation, surveillance, military applications, environmental monitoring, scientific research, telemedicine, fishery and wildlife management and research, retail, law enforcement, energy management, testing, manufacturing, and facility and infrastructure management (e.g., bridges, tunnels and healthcare).
There is also a need and value in having remote still and video data for such functions as situational awareness, surveillance and security, alarm verification, documentation, and troubleshooting at the remote location.
Traditional remote measurement and sensing applications involve analog signals (e.g., thermistors to sense temperature) as well as digital signals (contact closures, relay outputs). Hardware for remote monitoring systems is generally purpose-designed around an embedded microprocessor, memory, modems, and IO. Modems and IO are often designed as modules in order to support configurations for different applications.
Most remote sensing applications have a requirement to operate standalone; without outside power. This is often done by solar power panels, or, increasingly, various means of energy harvesting. Remote sensing systems must be able to operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week when there is no sun, and in the case of power interruptions. Total power consumption then is a key design variable and contributes substantially to size, cost, and installation efforts. Smartphone platforms are designed for extremely low standby power consumption—often 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than traditional remote monitoring hardware.
Typical camera systems deployed for security or surveillance in outdoor settings employ motion detectors to control alarming functions, as well as the amount of video stored or transmitted. Such systems also typically employ illumination systems to enable image capture at night. Current state-of-the-art technology is a single node which integrates a camera, single or multi-sensor PIR for motion detection, and one or more illumination elements. The fields of view of the camera, passive infrared receivers (PIR), and illumination elements are designed to coincide.
There are a number of technologies for motion detection, with the most common being passive infrared receivers. Costs of perimeter surveillance systems are driven by the costs of the total number of cameras that must be deployed to cover a given area. In turn, the coverage capability of a given motion detection and illumination camera system is typically governed by the range capabilities of the motion detection and illumination components.
The overall coverage range of a given camera system has also been limited by the camera capabilities such as pixel count. As camera pixel counts have improved dramatically, the design of more cost effective perimeter surveillance systems remains limited by the reach of the motion detection and illumination components.
An improved perimeter security and surveillance solution would include an ability to detect motion over a large area at low cost, an ability to provide illumination for night imaging over a large area at low cost, and limited power requirements for both motion detection and illumination, in order to simplify cost of deployment and installation.
A system with these properties would provide a significant improvement in the price/performance capabilities of perimeter security systems by reducing the total number of cameras required to cover a given area of interest. The low power and wireless aspects provide additional improvements by lowering the total system cost by simplifying installation and maintenance of the system.